A primary objective of the present invention is to provide a furniture construction for making low cost furniture which has the appearance of high quality upholstered furniture. Traditionally, high quality upholstered furniture is made by an expensive and laborious process of constructing a wooden frame, then building up the furniture with layers of webbing and/or springs, padding, cushions and finally covering it with fabric. While this traditional construction method results in furniture which is sturdy, durable and attractive, it is much too expensive for constructing low cost furniture for use by pets or children. The low cost construction techniques that are typically used for constructing furniture for pets or children does not result in furniture which is sturdy or durable or attractive enough to blend in with the decor of a well furnished room. For people who wish to include a pet bed for their dog or cat or small furniture for their children in their living room without detracting from the decorating scheme, there are no available options.
Maintenance is also an important issue. One of the major reasons for providing separate pet or child furniture is to save wear and tear on the more expensive regular household furniture. Pets and children can be very hard on furniture. They treat it roughly, they track in dirt, they sometimes inadvertently soil it and, at least with pets, they shed fur onto it. Traditional upholstered furniture is difficult to clean; often it requires special cleaning chemicals or professional cleaning equipment. Damage to upholstered furniture, such as when a pet has clawed or gnawed on the furniture, is also expensive to repair. Providing special furniture for the pets or children will help to reduce the wear and tear on the regular household furniture. It also helps to satisfy a child's sense of ownership or a pet's territorial instincts to provide them with furniture of their own to sit or lie on. It is important that special furniture for pets and children be easily and inexpensively cleaned and repaired. All this is in keeping with the desire to have the special furniture match with the rest of the regular furniture in a way that enhances, rather than detracts from, the room's decor. It is, therefore, desirable to provide a furniture construction which provides furniture which has all the desirable attributes of fine upholstered furniture by being sturdy, durable, attractive and which can be decorated to match other furnishings, but which at the same time is low cost and easily maintained.